Mickey filling in for Vanna

Last night, the TV was on and i heard that Vanna is filling in for Pat as he recovers from surgery.

Can’t help but wonder what happened on the backstage side of our business to come up with this (Wheel of Fortune last night).

Big, fun, creative marketing ideas are a different kind of creativity than the day to day grind on the customer service front lines.

You understand the difference, right?

Marketing creativity is seen publicly by millions. Front-line operational creativity is invisible to customers (Guests).

Marketing creativity can become an annual event like the recent, “I’m going to Disney World” super bowl commercial, but no customers are personally impacted while visiting a Disney Destination because of that creative idea.

Frontline operational creativity can become a new customer process (or a removal or improvement of an existing process) and impact tens of millions of customers (Guests) annually, year after year. Additionally, one process enhancement can impact not only each customer, but every interaction with every employee – literally billions of interactions annually, year after year.

You want an example right?

Sure, take the FastPass clocks at FastPass eligible Disney Attractions. The clocks were a frontline Cast Member idea. Originally, it was an argument awkward debate between the Cast Member and the Guest as to who’s watch had the “correct” FastPass entrance time. The clocks became the official tie-breaker when two watches didn’t match and life returned to normal for every customer henceforth.

Backstage, Castzooming (Costuming), the process whereby Employees (Cast Members) obtain their daily Disney Costumes moved from a daily one-for-one exchange to a once a week, all five costumes exchange. Not only that, Cast Member asked to be able to take them home. Billions of cumulative employee interactions enhanced by two radical front line employee ideas.

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By jeff noel

Retired Disney Institute Keynote Speaker and Prolific Blogger. Five daily, differently-themed personal blogs (about life's 5 big choices) on five interconnected sites.